In Toras Kohanim, we learn the following concept: "If you see someone drowning in the river or bandits attacking him, you must save him. As it says, לא תעמוד על דם רעך - Do not stand on your friend's blood." A Jew must do his utmost to help rescue another Jew in his time of danger and need.
The daughter of R' Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld zt"l related the following incident concerning her father:
One morning, R' Yosef Chaim did not return home from shul after the morning prayers. This was a bit unusual, and the family was concerned because the Rav was extremely punctual and always arrived home at exactly the same time, to the minute. He was getting on in years, so they were concerned. They began a frantic search for him.
Fortunately, they did not have to look far. As they reached the bottom of the staircase that led into the courtyard of his home, they spotted R' Yosef Chaim standing over the well, drawing up bucket after bucket of water, and handing them to two small children. One child would take the bucket of water home and run back with an empty bucket, which he would give to R' Yosef Chaim to fill up once again.
R' Yosef Chaim's daughter ran over to him and cried out in a distraught tone, "Tatte, Tatte, what are you doing? Have you become the neighborhood water carrier?"
"No, no, my dear daughter," he answered, trying to calm her. He finished up with the children and saw to it that they got home safely with the water. Then, he turned to his daughter and said, "I was returning home from shul this morning when I saw these two little ones, children of a poor talmid chacham, trying to draw water from the well. As you know, it is a very dangerous task for such small children, for they can easily fall into the well, G-d forbid, and be drowned. I asked them why they did not hire the water carrier to fetch them water like everyone else did, and they answered that they had no money to pay him."
R' Yosef Chaim continued to speak. "At this point, I became a bit worried. 'And where are your parents?' I asked. 'Father is ill, and mother has just given birth,' they replied, 'and there is not a drop of water in the house.' When I heard this, I took off my talis and tefillin, took the buckets from them, and began drawing up water from the well." He looked straight at his daughter and spread out his arms in a gesture of bewilderment. "What choice did I have, for no one was around to help them?"
Being the daughter of the rav of the community, she confronted him with a question. "But Tatte, what will the people say when they see your heavy lifting and straining? Is it fitting that their rav should become a water carrier?"
R' Yosef Chaim smiled kindly and answered her in a soothing tone. "And what would they say in Heaven if I had gone home, sat down, and eaten breakfast in comfort? All the while, I neglected two small children who were endangering their lives drawing water from a deep well so that they could help a father who is ill and a mother who has just given birth!"
RABBI SIMCHA GOFFMAN
TORAH TAVLIN
